jason8612

Z fares are common for Europe-USA
i.e. KRK-ORD on LH or UA 2340 USD in July
LHR-SYD 4594 USD (B fare is 4012 USD)
MUC-SIN 3285 USD
All of these require min 7 days, max 1 month stay and usually 60days ahead scheduling
But for the summer, MUC-SIN via USA on UA (or LH) in C for 3285 isnt bad
Oddly, though KRK-SIN is coming out 3869 USD in D fare. No min stay, max 1 year. Thats tempting, incl if I can get a conf F on LH via FRA
Heck, KRK-BOM is coming out 3650 USD in D

BDLORD

Thanks Lori, I don't see myself as an average anything!

We can all speculate but I say when in doubt call, it's not like you will end up at an outsourced call center.
A lot of Intl. Z fares have a 90 day buy on them.

I still don't understand some fare buckets. Thanks to FlyerTalk I know more than I should. ^

asya999

Well, I have about 3,900 fewer posts here than you so I expect that there are lots of things I don't know. I'm only a highly knowledgable 1K flier compared to my coworkers. Two of them are 1Ks and the other day one asked me:

"What's the difference between these 500s, CR-1s and SWU's that are here in my upgrade statement".

The other one also didn't know how to ask for an upgrade or how to check whether it's likely that it'll come through... We got to a point where I started writing up various frequent flier tips for them on our internal wiki...

BDLORD

He was talking about me, I was just saying for you to call. Is it really worth 500 miles for online booking or would you rather save a couple thousand dollars?
This is really what I was saying.

taipeipeter

When all is said and done, you should call about Z fares if they don't show up automatically on your computer screen--which they often don't for whatever reason. Sometimes an agent can tweak a routing to qualify for a Z fare.

Dr_wanderlust

z fares are a myth on UA.

I had to book US to get one

DasKitty

Really? I've had good success finding them on most routings - transpac excepted. Quite frankly, UA doesn't need to always offer Z fares on LAX/SFO-SYD as the premium cabins sell well on that route at a C/D level.

As others have posted, it just depends when/where you are going - Europe usually has Z fares (with enough advance purchase, that is).

dll

I am looking right now at several SFO-EU Z fares on UA; they're the second cheapest in the market for where I want to fly in the fall.

I priced out several open-jaw routings on united.com and went through to the purchase screen to see that the fares are ZSPECE, allow open-jaw routings, and book into A or Z on the domestic portions. International/over-the-water fare basis code is ZSPECE but Booking Class: Y bothers me. I go to the seat selection screen and sure enough, they're economy seats.

I'm afraid to call UA to be told "Z fares are economy fares with a complimentary space available upgrade." What's going on here? These appear to be published normal Z fares - not outrageously inexpensive.

Sigh. Am I doing something wrong? Continental and Alitalia are publishing a fare about $200 cheaper in F/C the whole way, maybe I should be doing that instead.

nnn

Did you check to see if seats are available in booking class Z for your overwater flights? If the flight is Z0, you'll be in economy.

If your dates are inflexible and UA is showing Z0, don't forget to look at LH. The Z fares can generally be used there, as well. They have a better C seat, too.

Try using ITA software to get the routing together. It should show the booking class for each segment.

dll

Yea - UA and SeatCounter both say at least Z1 for all of the flight mentioned...I'm just purchasing one ticket so that's all I need. Hmm. Something isn't right there. UA's Z fare works on the LH codeshare flights but same problem - get through to the purchase screen and Booking Code: Y for over the water portions. LH's flights are at least Z4 on the UA code according to UA.com and SeatCounter.

emma dog

What are your dates/cities?

Are you certain that all of the booking codes are in Z? Did you read the fare rules to make sure that there isn't something stupid like "Booking class Y for intl portion"?

nigos

The solution is straing forward. Call reservations and ask for seat assignments as you book the flights. If you get an unsatisfactory answer either try again, or make a trip to the airport and buy the fare but be sure you get the seat assignment at the time of purchsae. Z fares are absolutely business cabin and should not/must not book into Y.

1kBill

They will if there is no Z inventory for the selected flight. How or why this happens, I don't know, but it happened to me a few weeks ago when booking a TA flight. A segment on LH was booked into Y becuase there were no seats available in biz - according to the agent when I called to cancel 5 minutes after making the booking and saw my that one of my seats was assigned in an LH economy cabin for FRA-LAX.

Ari

I have to say that this is classic .bomb-- offering economy space to a customer who clearly wants to purchase a premium-cabin seat.

dll

I gave up - I called United and they were perplexed. The 1K agent put me on hold and came back and said "it looks like even though the inventory is there, the fare is not eligible for transatlantic business class unless you route through London, but we no longer serve Paris-London since BMI pulled the route. You could route CDG-FRA/MUC-LHR-SFO, otherwise you would need to purchase a D fare."

I've booked the ticket with AA/Iberia at some inconvenience - SFO-JFK-MAD-FCO outbound and Paris/Orly-MAD-ORD-SFO on the return, although the fare was fantastic: 2625 plus taxes, all confirmed in F/J. United wanted 3400 for similar SFO-FRA-FCO/CDG-FRA-SFO and would not confirm the C class seats. Bah.